Much to my disbelief, I'm more or less at the halfway point of this pregnancy. Okay, so part of my disbelief is that I will have another 19-21 weeks of being in this state, but of course, I am celebrating this numerical milestone anyway.
This is me at what was later declared 18 weeks and 4 days by a technician. Terrible selfie, I know, but I wasn't about to post the bare-belly photos that I've been bugging "The Ukrainian" to take every few weeks. At this point, the size of my stomach was largely (hah!) dependent on what I've eaten in the previous day (um, maybe a Pizookie and such) and this was definitely no exception.
For kicks, this was taken about a week later. I have bad posture. Also, things really took off in the stomach department at this point, so I feel/am much more huge (huge-r?) now.
Now, here are a bunch of random thoughts:
I toyed with the idea of writing up a "first tri recap" post, but it never came to fruition. I think this is partly because if I ever label a post "first tri," it had better be about swimming, biking, and running. =D In all seriousness, though, I just had a hard time summarizing a very nauseating and worrisome time, even though I've thankfully been having a completely normal and boring pregnancy so far. If anyone reading is currently in their first trimester of pregnancy, my advice is to stay off of the Internet, period. That's like saying not to breathe, but oh well...
Truthfully, we pretty much don't have anything ready yet, although there is kind of a rough plan of what we need to get and from where. I'm pretty sure we'll get going on that before the end of the month, though. I'm also pretty sure this is just one of those things that I will find overwhelming until I start, like packing for college, or planning a wedding.
Speaking of overwhelming, we don't know what to name our baby. We agreed that we wouldn't even have a conversation about it until sometime in the third trimester, and even then, probably closer to the due date. Meanwhile, I think both of us are supposed to be independently brainstorming, but I secretly hope that "The Ukrainian" has picked magical names that I will instantly like so that the discussion can be over quickly. Of course, I am so picky about names even in my own "short-list" that I don't think that will be the case. I also somewhat worry that when I DO come up with some, he won't like them.
That last paragraph implies that we don't know the baby's sex. The ultrasound tech seemed to be thrilled that she didn't have to make a determination, so I think it's a win-win-win. Except now I have to come up with more names. I've been looking at so many name lists that I almost saw "man whore" when looking at the below. I'm sorry if that is your given name -- it actually sounds nice, but blame my eyes:
I was named after a teacher that my father had at the time, and my younger sisters were pretty much named after random people that happened to be present or on TV around the time they were born. Maybe the same thing will happen for us??
This is the busiest time of year at work for me, so I haven't been able to take time off besides for my prenatal appointments, which I already kind of feel bad about even though everyone is understanding. My provider doesn't have weekend appointments, but given that it gets me out of work, I don't mind! However, this HAS put a damper on our daycare search (childcare plans still up in the air). Like the medical offices, the darn places are only open on weekdays, so "The Ukrainian" and I are planning to take a "staycation" and look at local daycares, as early as I can take a day off for that.
As for how I'm doing, well, I'm just happy to be not be nauseous all the time. I'm not really craving food or eating like a mad person like I thought I would. I haven't wanted sweets as much as I used to (wow!), but I did learn that I can't eat too many of them after dinner like I used to, lest my already uncomfortable sleeping time be interrupted by sugar fits, which never happened before. I miss casual encounters with coffee, raw and smoked fish, and random egg or tuna salad sandwiches that are kind of questionable to have right now.
Also, I'm definitely more relaxed that I can feel the baby move now and the tests have come back without any flags. As of this half-way point, I finally stopped riding the train into work. This was a decision that definitely will increase my transportation costs but one that "The Ukrainian" and I decided was best due to physical challenges and concerns about stress and immunity. I admit that after a year and a half of riding the train almost daily to work, I mentally celebrated on the last day when a series of issues made my 12-mile ride back lasted two hours. My stress levels have definitely evened out a bit. You're welcome, little baby.
Finally, here a link to a random YouTube video ("Fancy" parody) my friend showed me when she found out about the baby. How did I not know about this before? LOL
This is me at what was later declared 18 weeks and 4 days by a technician. Terrible selfie, I know, but I wasn't about to post the bare-belly photos that I've been bugging "The Ukrainian" to take every few weeks. At this point, the size of my stomach was largely (hah!) dependent on what I've eaten in the previous day (um, maybe a Pizookie and such) and this was definitely no exception.
For kicks, this was taken about a week later. I have bad posture. Also, things really took off in the stomach department at this point, so I feel/am much more huge (huge-r?) now.
Now, here are a bunch of random thoughts:
I toyed with the idea of writing up a "first tri recap" post, but it never came to fruition. I think this is partly because if I ever label a post "first tri," it had better be about swimming, biking, and running. =D In all seriousness, though, I just had a hard time summarizing a very nauseating and worrisome time, even though I've thankfully been having a completely normal and boring pregnancy so far. If anyone reading is currently in their first trimester of pregnancy, my advice is to stay off of the Internet, period. That's like saying not to breathe, but oh well...
Truthfully, we pretty much don't have anything ready yet, although there is kind of a rough plan of what we need to get and from where. I'm pretty sure we'll get going on that before the end of the month, though. I'm also pretty sure this is just one of those things that I will find overwhelming until I start, like packing for college, or planning a wedding.
Speaking of overwhelming, we don't know what to name our baby. We agreed that we wouldn't even have a conversation about it until sometime in the third trimester, and even then, probably closer to the due date. Meanwhile, I think both of us are supposed to be independently brainstorming, but I secretly hope that "The Ukrainian" has picked magical names that I will instantly like so that the discussion can be over quickly. Of course, I am so picky about names even in my own "short-list" that I don't think that will be the case. I also somewhat worry that when I DO come up with some, he won't like them.
That last paragraph implies that we don't know the baby's sex. The ultrasound tech seemed to be thrilled that she didn't have to make a determination, so I think it's a win-win-win. Except now I have to come up with more names. I've been looking at so many name lists that I almost saw "man whore" when looking at the below. I'm sorry if that is your given name -- it actually sounds nice, but blame my eyes:
I was named after a teacher that my father had at the time, and my younger sisters were pretty much named after random people that happened to be present or on TV around the time they were born. Maybe the same thing will happen for us??
This is the busiest time of year at work for me, so I haven't been able to take time off besides for my prenatal appointments, which I already kind of feel bad about even though everyone is understanding. My provider doesn't have weekend appointments, but given that it gets me out of work, I don't mind! However, this HAS put a damper on our daycare search (childcare plans still up in the air). Like the medical offices, the darn places are only open on weekdays, so "The Ukrainian" and I are planning to take a "staycation" and look at local daycares, as early as I can take a day off for that.
As for how I'm doing, well, I'm just happy to be not be nauseous all the time. I'm not really craving food or eating like a mad person like I thought I would. I haven't wanted sweets as much as I used to (wow!), but I did learn that I can't eat too many of them after dinner like I used to, lest my already uncomfortable sleeping time be interrupted by sugar fits, which never happened before. I miss casual encounters with coffee, raw and smoked fish, and random egg or tuna salad sandwiches that are kind of questionable to have right now.
Also, I'm definitely more relaxed that I can feel the baby move now and the tests have come back without any flags. As of this half-way point, I finally stopped riding the train into work. This was a decision that definitely will increase my transportation costs but one that "The Ukrainian" and I decided was best due to physical challenges and concerns about stress and immunity. I admit that after a year and a half of riding the train almost daily to work, I mentally celebrated on the last day when a series of issues made my 12-mile ride back lasted two hours. My stress levels have definitely evened out a bit. You're welcome, little baby.
Finally, here a link to a random YouTube video ("Fancy" parody) my friend showed me when she found out about the baby. How did I not know about this before? LOL
How exciting -- 1/2 way mark! You look great! When I hit about 20 weeks I also noticed my stomach take off. Every week you feel so big and it just keeps going somehow and is supposed to continue! It's amazing how your body just does its thing.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're feeling better. Now the weeks are going to really fly by. We've kind of started to hit the "oh crap, we totally are running out of time" stage.
My name vote is for Yusra. lol
I think my version of that name is even worse. I saw "Manure" when I read it aloud! Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode....
ReplyDelete